Georgian College student earns top spot at VOICES2016 intercollegiate speech competition

March 31, 2016

Georgian College Advertising and Marketing Communications student Vishal Rose has truly found his voice.

Rose was one of three top winners in the annual VOICES2016 competition held in Toronto March 30.

Building on the contest theme of “Wise Words,” Rose impressed judges with his speech titled “Everybody in This Room is Amazing.”

Students from Georgian, Centennial, Humber and Seneca colleges competed at VOICES2016.

Hosted by Seneca, the event, now in its fifth year, invited public relations, corporate communications, marketing and advertising college students in the Greater Toronto Area to come together and showcase their creativity and public speaking talents.

“Winning today definitely motivates me, because my dream is to one day give a TED Talk,” said Rose. “Making people smile and learn from what I have to say is what I love to do.”

Three winners were selected. Malick Ba and Cleo Clatney from Humber College were the other award recipients. Other Georgian participants were Carolyn Pontes, Amanda Fernandes and Mitchell Cochrane.

Judges were Roxanne Cramer, President, CCI Search; Lisa Davis, Marketing Director, Marketwired, now part of Nasdaq; and Geoff Rowan, past Managing Director, Ketchum and EVP, Weber Shandwick.

“I’m pleased to be a first time judge at VOICES, and was impressed by the calibre of talent shown by the students,” said Davis. “All of the competitors and their colleges deserve credit for the creativity and confidence represented today. It was tough to help pick only three winners.”

Prizes consisted of one-on-one career coaching with Roxanne Cramer; custom-designed business cards provided by Swerve Design Group Inc.; and a subscription to online business tutorial site Lynda.com.

Sponsors included CCC Academy, Marketwired, Swerve Design Group Inc., CCDriving.ca, Speakers’ Spotlight and Fabarnak at the 519 Community Centre.